She Didn’t Fix Her Reputation. She Threw It Away. Chapter 15

She Didn’t Fix Her Reputation. She Threw It Away. Chapter 15

He pulled out his phone and dialed the number he knew by heart, again and again.

“The number you have dialed is not in service.”

The cold, robotic voice was a constant refrain.

He would hang up and immediately redial.

Hang up, redial.

He was like a man who’d lost everything, still clutching a lottery ticket he refused to believe was worthless.

The people who once fell over themselves to invite him to the most exclusive parties suddenly went silent. The sycophants who had orbited him now actively avoided him.

Once the Wells family publicly cut ties, he went from being New York’s most enviable heir to its most spectacular joke.

When Anya found him, he was hiding in the darkest corner of a downtown bar.

“Beckett? Darling, what’s wrong?” She slid onto the stool next to him, her voice a sweet purr.

The heavy cloud of her perfume, which he’d once found intoxicating, now just made him feel sick.

“She’s gone,” he muttered, staring into his untouched glass of whiskey. “Daphne’s gone. The engagement is over.”

“What?” Anya gasped, her hand flying to her mouth in a perfect pantomime of shock.

But he didn’t miss the flash of triumph in her eyes.

She’d won.

She’d actually managed to unseat the untouchable politician’s daughter.

“Why?” Anya clutched at his arm. “Just because of a little joke?”

Why?

Beckett wished he knew.

“Just because of a joke.”